If you are the owner of a locked version of the Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2 or the Note 3, you may be interested to hear that engineers at Samsung use an unlock code and this code has leaked. Owners can now unlock their handsets and then go on to use them with any carrier around the world.
A locked handset with Verizon for instance will only work with that carrier. If the device is unlocked though any SIM card can be used. This means that the device could be sent overseas to a relative or friend.
Anyone wanting to unlock their handset should remove the SIM card from it, put one in from another carrier and then turn the handset off and back on again.
Go to the dial pad and then enter *#197328640#. Go to your main menu > [1] UMTS > [1] Debug Screen > [8] Phone Control > [6] Network Lock > Options [3] Perso SHA256 OFF. Wait for 30 seconds or a minute before going back to your main menu and choosing “back”. You will now see a “Network Lock” message. Choose [4] NW Lock NV Data INITIALLIZ.
If you typed in the sequence right, it should read: “Asterisk Pound One Nine Seven Three Two Eight Six Four Zero Pound”. Remember that some people call the asterisk “star”, and the pound button “hash”.
The Samsung Galaxy device will now have been unlocked and the owner is able to use it with whatever carrier they want. The engineers at Samsung have used this unlock code for some time and so it could work on many different Samsung devices.
